Analysis: 201,000 in Florida didn't vote because of long lines

January 29, 2013|By Scott Powers and David Damron, Orlando Sentinel

But as Florida's lawmakers and other officials try to piece together what went wrong — again — during a big national election, there are no easy answers or even consistent trends that explain the long lines.

The Sentinel analysis found 747 precincts in the state's 25 largest counties that still had people voting after 8:30 p.m., meaning the lines were 90 minutes long at the official closing time of 7 p.m. Over half of those were in just six four counties: Miami-Dade, Orange, Lee, and Osceola.

But in each case, neighboring counties — some of roughly equal size — reported few, if any, lines.

For instance, Orange and Osceola counties struggled — but Seminole County closed its last precinct at 8:27 p.m. and neighboring Lake at 8:24. While Lee County foundered, next-door Collier County ran smoothly. Broward and Palm Beach counties had some late precincts, but their problems were modest compared with nearby Miami-Dade.

The Sentinel previously reported that most of the worst lines in Orange and Osceola counties were at precincts with large Hispanic populations. Orange County Supervisor Bill Cowles said poll workers have since told him that lines bogged down as numerous Spanish-speaking voters sought help with the state-provided translations of the proposed constitutional amendments.

"People struggled for great periods of time on those amendments and they were also the same group that was being targeted to get out and vote in this election. … They were determined to have their votes count," Cowles said.

Florida law sets minimum standards in Florida for county officials to draw up precinct boundaries, select voting centers and deploy workers, machines and voting booths. Every elections supervisor attempts to tailor plans to local needs.

Clearly, local decisions made a difference.

For example, around the state, precincts that managed to wrap up by 7:30 p.m. tended to be smaller, home to an average of fewer than 1,900 voters each, while precincts that closed after 10 p.m. averaged more than 3,100. But there were also dozens of precincts that had 4,000 or more voters that closed by 7:30.

Dara Lindenbaum monitored Florida's election woes for the Voting Rights Project, a nonpartisan voter-protection program. She said some counties were not prepared for a longer ballot and the larger-than-expected crush of voters on Election Day resulting from cutbacks in early voting.

For instance, in Miami-Dade County, six of its seven largest polling sites — ranging in size from 5,597 to 8,542 voters — closed after 11 p.m. In contrast, Palm Beach County drew precincts so that none had more than 3,000 registered voters, and the last one closed at 10:16 p.m.

"The polling locations that run the best are the places that are smaller, and in your neighborhood," Lindenbaum said. "The bigger they get, the more likely they are to have problems."